Posted on 05/14/2005 6:11:08 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
A Houston church is grappling with a second set of sex abuse charges in less than a year after a former choir director was arrested this week on molestation accusations. Police on Wednesday arrested German Rojas Moreno, 43, a former parishioner and choir director at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church at 8200 Roos in southwest Houston. That is the same church where another man alleged he was sexually abused by a seminary student in 1996 — a claim now the focus of a federal lawsuit that accuses Catholic officials, including the pope, of conspiring to cover up such crimes.
Moreno, of the 9200 block of Burdine, was arrested after he was accused of molesting five teenage boys, between 1996 and 2001, whose families he befriended at the church, investigators said. He is denying the allegations. He was charged with two counts of indecency with a child, two counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, records show. He was released from jail after posting bonds totaling $60,000. None of the alleged abuse happened at the church, where Moreno was a choir director, said Investigator Michelle Gallagher of the Houston Police Department juvenile sex crimes unit. Church officials said Moreno was only a volunteer. They told police he left the parish about a year ago because of a dispute with a new choir director.
"There was never a check cut for this man. He was not on the payroll," said Annette Gonzales Taylor, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The police investigation began last month when the alleged victims, now adults, reported they were sexually abused by Moreno. Three of the men are brothers from one family, Gallagher said, and the other two are brothers from another family. One man, unable to keep silent any longer, told his fiancee and mother of the abuse, which led to statements from the others. The men said they were between 11 and 15 years old when the attacks occurred. They claimed they were drugged and sexually assaulted while spending the night at Moreno's various residences after he befriended their families and gained their parents' trust, police said. During visits to Moreno's homes, the boys were given white pills they were told were vitamins, police said. Gallagher said police believe those pills were really Xanax, a tranquilizer.
The men said the sexual assaults occurred while they were passed out from the medication. They would later awaken to find their clothes removed or disarranged, or their private parts hurting, police said. At the time of the alleged incidents, the families were low-income undocumented immigrants, Gallagher said. Moreno, who is single and has no children, was able to lure the teens to his homes because he had a large-screen TV and video games, police said. The charge that drew the highest bail amount was prompted by a man who told police he was 11 when he spent the night at Moreno's home and became disoriented after consuming a strawberry drink. That man told police he was not completely asleep before Moreno began undressing him and forced himself on the 11-year-old as he cried out for his mother, court papers show.
Police also believe Moreno, who is one of the owners of the Dynamic Healthcare Center at 6006 Bellaire, was practicing medicine without a license and provided medical care to the boys there. The alleged victims also knew Moreno as their doctor, court papers show. One of the sexual assaults is alleged to have occurred at that clinic, police said. Houston police are conducting a separate investigation into the unlicensed medical care allegations against Moreno. "We have no evidence showing that he had ever earned a medical license in the United States," Gallagher said. After the alleged assaults, Moreno remained close friends with the two families, even paying for part of the children's college educations, Gallagher said. "That made it hard to tell their parents," Gallagher said. Moreno was arrested Wednesday at the clinic. He admitted to the police that he was close to the two families but denied abusing anyone. "He denies each and every allegation of those particular charges and was very shocked they came about," said Moreno's attorney, Don Hecker. Hecker, who was hired by Moreno on Friday, said he was told Moreno is a doctor in Costa Rica, but that has not yet been confirmed. Moreno had been working here with another doctor but will not be returning to the clinic, Hecker said. Neither the church nor the archdiocese were ever told of any alleged wrongdoing by Moreno before learning Friday of his arrest, Taylor said.
Officers close to the case confirmed the men and their families went to the police and never reported their allegations to the church or archdiocese. The church has cooperated with the police investigation, Gallagher said. St. Francis de Sales officials will notify parishioners of the claims against Moreno by reading a letter during Masses this weekend. Police said they will do everything possible to protect the privacy of others who might come forward by keeping them anonymous. Investigators said they don't care if they or their families are in the country illegally. They are asking anyone who might have been victimized by Moreno to call Gallagher at the HPD Juvenile Sex Crimes Unit at 713-731-5335. St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church was already in an uncomfortable spotlight because of a previous sexual abuse allegation there involving a former seminary student, Juan Carlos Patino Arango, now 38, of Colombia. Patino Arango, described in court records as a former deacon at the church, was indicted last year on a charge of indecency with a child, but his whereabouts are unknown. The charge stems from allegations that a 14-year-old boy was molested in Patino Arango's bedroom at the church rectory in 1996, a criminal complaint shows. That victim, now 23, and two other men have filed a lawsuit in Houston claiming that Catholic officials' conspiracy led to their molestations.
Less than two months ago, another former choir director at another Catholic church in Houston was arrested on similar charges of sexually abusing children. Stuart Alan Murphy, 57, a former choir director at Annunciation Catholic Church downtown, was arrested March 30 on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and four counts of indecency with a child. He remains in the Harris County Jail.
Maybe the latest pope will ADDRESS this.
Here's an opportunity for him.
Almost makes me miss the Spanish Inquisition.
Certainly.
Won't you be disappointed when this all ends.
If anyone thinks abuse within the Catholic Church is limited to the USA, they are sadly mistaken.
In Mexico, South and Central America Catholic clergy are
revered.
Can you imagine a child going home to tell his/her
mother the Priest molested them?
The child would be chastised and told to hush.
God only knows the amount of child abuse in the Catholic Church worldwide.
The church should just close its doors and find another
hook to keep the faithful saps.
And then you woke up, went to YOUR church, and asked God to forgive you for your smugness, right?
Choir director, not clergy.
As long as it can be tied in any way to the Church it will receive publicity. This problem is much bigger in the public schools but it hurts a group in bed with the msm, hence little publicity. It is also a big problem in all religous institutions, sad to say. When I was young there was a huge problem with this in the Boy Scouts and you see how the media has treated them when they cleaned house.
That said, Law was despicable. Unfortunately,I believe that what they did was what any defense attorney would counsel. Deny, deny and stonewall. Despicable? Yes. Good legal advice? Yes. Morally right? NO. Legal defense trumped moral common sense.
The Church, like many institutions, has gone out of their way to not offend the homosexual minority and they have taken advantage of it. They have purposefully infiltrated these institutions, churches, public schools and anywhere that they would have access to children and teenagers.
The problem isn't the teachings of the Church, but how the Church legal minds handled those who committed these abhorrent crimes.
The new Pope sure sounds like he is going to clean house of this filth. The sooner the better.
Do you really think this is all a witch hunt? My real question is "why are these always homosexual allegations against boys?" There must be some allegations out there of assaults against women or girls, but the homosexual allegations seem to be either prevalent or what makes the headlines.
Not being accusatory, but asking a legitimate question about what is fed to us through the media. Either there is substance to what the media reports or they are picking and choosing what stories they want us to hear, which would be an outright attack on Christianity.
I mean, when was the last time Christians were attacked in the media? Less than an hour ago? Or there is a real problem with "celibate" priests.
Actually I won't be disappointed. Do you think I take pleasure in people being sexually molested? Why would I take pleasure in other people's problems?
THE PROBLEM here is that Catholics as a whole just can NOT see that the Catholic church HAS a problem and it's huge. They refuse to see it. The same thing goes for Islam. Muslims can NOT see that Islam has a problem (urging its members to kill in many places) and it's huge. The first step to solving a problem is to admit you have one, the evidence of which is apparent to others but not to the one who has the problem. This applies to Catholicism, Islam and to me as well.
You may have a valid point. If Ratzinger does something about this, much better. He's already started the process of "Sainthood" for John Paul, who did NOT do what he should have done. That is another discussion, though...
Am I reading this correctly? The Perp is a FORMER Choir Director, and a FORMER Parishioner. NONE of the alleged abuses happened at the church. This looks like a Witch Hunt to me, based on other things that supposedly happened at the church in the past.
I'm basing these comments STRICTLY on what this PARTICULAR article inferrs. I have no sympathy for child molestors of any religious stripe.
You make broad judgements of Catholics.
They know there are problems, but they aren't going to leave the church in droves and allow the corruption and perverts to take over.
Your diatribe should be directed elsewhere.
And no, I'm not Catholic. I'm thinking you may not be either.
These are pedophiles who prey on boys. They are not homosexuals. There is a difference. All homosexuals are not pedophiles. All pedophiles do not prey on boys.
Merely posting information. If he was allowed access to individuals whom he then sexually molested at the Catholic church, then the church has some responsibility. It is information people need to have and therefore it has been posted. End of story.
He had significant contact with the Catholic church through which he gained access to the individuals. The church should be more careful about screening who has contact with parishioners. No?
It is also cropping up in many other churches and especially in our public schools. I do hope the pope starts taking steps to address this issue. We need a moral leader to guide us out of this cesspool the world is becoming.
Public schools, yes. Thanks for pointing that out.
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